Geo-Strategic Trend - 259. page

On April 2, UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that China has provided the United Nations with intelligence on Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology. In an interview with Global Times, Nie Feng, International Affairs Specialist with China Academy of Social Science said that China has been providing constructive effort in solving Iran’s nuclear issues. The reports by certain western media were out of biased opinion. The speculation is nothing but a unified consensus of the western media.

Source: Xinhua, April 5, 2008
news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-04/05/content_7922111.htm

On March 31, 2008, Xinhua reports that China’s Premier Wen Jiabao met leaders of Burma, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam and signed a series of cooperation agreements during the meeting of Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation (GMS) on March 30 and 31, 2008. The report attacked Japanese media article reporting the meeting, saying that the Daily Yomiuri’s article vilifies China’s aid to Lao and GMS areas. It says that Yomiuri’s article accuses China of intending to establish a “base” in East Union and to control the development in GMS area, and that is unhappy with the exclusion of Japanese government from the regional cooperation activity.

Source: Xinhua, March 31, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-03/31/content_7889645.htm

Xinhua published a commentary article stating that the comments made by Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, to boycott Beijing Olympic is sheer nonsense, extremely irresponsible and represent only a few western biased views which will have no effect. “This kind of unpopular statement will hurt the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people and place itself on the opposing side of a quarter of world’s population”, it said. “People who make this kind of statement are carrying cold-war mentality and ignoring the stability, development and prosperity China has made. They only want to smear and criticize China , which has reflected their own arrogance and ignorance.”

Source: Xinhua, March 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/30/content_7881720.htm

Global Times, a newspaper under the State Xinhua, continues to criticize western media for “false and distorted” news reporting of the Tibetan protests. On March 25, 2008, Global Times states, “the overseas Chinese are in unprecedented unison, firmly standing side by side with the motherland, and proactively seek to bring out the truth of Tibet to rebut the vilification of the western media in a reasonable and lawful manner in spite of obstructions.” It states that local government in Toronto, Canada, denied the application for permit by some overseas Chinese students to hold anti-"Tibet independence" activities.

Source: Global Times, reprinted by Sina.com March 25, 2008
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-03-25/145515221706.shtml

On March 25th, the Third China Educational Expo was held in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The participants came from 19 universities in China including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The aim of the exhibit was to assist Bangladeshis in further understanding the current system of college education in China and how they might attend universities in China for their college education.

Source: Xinhua, March 25, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/25/content_7857270.htm

This front page article of China News cited a report from “Qiao Bao” (“Oversea Chinese Daily”), a US-based newspaper backed by Beijing, that Chinese Associations in the DC area have expressed their “grave anger” towards “the very few” “Tibetan separatists” who committed “criminal acts” in Tibet as well as recent “terrorist attacks” on overseas Chinese consulate buildings. An official statement released by the US Fujian Fellowship Association calls for overseas Chinese to “defend the embassy and consulates of the motherland and to protect the safety of our diplomats”, according to the article. A joint statement from the Washington DC Council for Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China and the Greater DC Friends of Xinjiang Association expressed “grave anger” towards “certain Western media” for “intentional misleading reporting” on the Tibet incident and called for Western politicians “not to be cheated by Dalai clique”.

Source: China News, March 23, 2008
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/hr/mzhrxw/news/2008/03-23/1199652.shtm

On March 20, Beijing published a Sino-Peru Joint Press Communique during the State visit of the President of Peru Alan Garcia Perez to China from March 18th to 21st. The Communique states that the Peruvian government supports the one-China policy and opposes Taiwan’s referendum on UN membership. Peru acknowledges the “market economy” status of China, with its bilateral trade volume exceeding 6 billion USD. China and Perus will engage in cooperation on mining, energy, telecommunications, electric power, and fishery. Peru highly appreciates China’s important aid. China wishes Peru’s success as host of APEC in 2008. Peru wishes China’s success as host of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Source: Xinhua, March 20, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/20/content_7829153.htm

China firmly rejects the "groundless accusations" by the European Union and NGO’s on China’s human rights record, according to the official Chinese delegate attending the 7th Session of UN Human Right Conference in Geneva. For the past thirty years, China’s democratic and judicial system has been constantly improving, the level of human rights enjoyed by the people is steadily rising, and the government policy on human rights has been "whole-heartedly" supported by the people, according to the official statement. It suggests that EU members should check their own human rights records before accusing others.

Source: Xinhua, March 17, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-03/17/content_7805168.htm